Propolis Health Benefits

Bees & our health

In 200 years, man has developed his modern effective drugs, that often carry undesirable side effects. Bees have been around for more than 100 million years perfecting their recipe for keeping disease out of their hives. Masters at disinfection, their chemical weaponry is called PROPOLIS or “Russian penicillin”.

They make it by mixing their body secretions with plant resin, and they seal their hives and embalm their enemies with it. Humans have been using it for remedies for about 3,000 years and even the old testament praises it [Hebr. ‘tzori’]

Faithful followers believe it can solve any health problem while skeptics reject this. The facts show that it does not cure everything but what cannot be denied is the very impressive scientific data on the pharmaceutical value of Propolis including its ability to combat viruses (something that antibiotics can not do). It strengthens the immune system rather than weakens it and pathogens do not build up resistance to it.

This does not mean we should throw away antibiotics, but rather not use them so often. Propolis used in combination with modern drugs was shown to be synergistic!

MECHANISM OF ACTION

This is little understood, as propolis has already had more than 300 constituents identified. Its flavonoids and phenols are said to be active compounds, but no isolates have yet produced the same results as those of the complex product.

LINKS

For more info and references for medical journals and scientific papers